ZDNet Government

David Gewirtz

In addition to hosting the ZDNet Government and ZDNet DIY-IT blogs, CBS Interactive's Distinguished Lecturer David Gewirtz is an author, U.S. policy advisor and computer scientist. He is featured in The History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets, is one of America's foremost cyber-security experts, and is a top expert on saving and creating jobs. He is also director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute as well as the founder of ZATZ Publishing.
David is a member of FBI InfraGard, the Cyberwarfare Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a regular CNN contributor, and a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is the author of Where Have All the Emails Gone?, the definitive study of email in the White House, as well as How To Save Jobs and The Flexible Enterprise, the classic book that served as a foundation for today's agile business movement.

There's a bit of a fuss in Australia about new data retention regulations, and how it plays out Down Under may have implications for IT across the world. Plus Google, WikiLeaks, FTC, Internet of Things, and data center consolidation. It's been a pretty good week.

It wouldn't be another news week if our governments didn't disappoint us in some way or another. The UK seems to be tiring of civil liberties, Russia is tiring of civility, and North Korea is way overdue for its little nap. Plus (no surprise), the Department of Homeland Security is insecure.

Some countries and cultures have a hatred of our freedoms. Not only do they persecute their own subjects relentlessly, they feel they can reach outside of their own closed societies and attack us. They are wrong. We will not be silenced.

Congress has actually done something useful, blocking the release of Internet domain and address administration. Of course, it's all part of Congress blocking everything Obama, but still, you take your wins where you can find them. Plus lots of international gov news.

It's been a relatively quiet weekend here in the US, government screwup-wise. But that doesn't mean there's not a lot going on 'round the world, especially when it comes to cyberattacks and cybercrime.

ZDNet's David Gewirtz has been warning about China and the risk to US infrastructure for years. The NSA now seems to agree. Plus the FAA wants to restrict commercial drones, which we all knew was inevitable.

This week, we've got news of Anonymous and the KKK, spies in the sky, congressional finger-pointing, AT&T being AT&T, and so much more. It's ZDNet's Government IT Week and you would believe what the world's govs are up to this week!

Everyone seems slightly shocked that the US president has come out in favor of net neutrality (he supported it before he won the White House), US Postal Service employee database was hacked (let's not go postal, folks), and the FBI took down 400 dark web sites. Plus more tasty govern-minty news from around the world. Read on.